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Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Sheera~Sooji Halwa

Today is the first day of the nine-day festival of Navrathri.There is festive spirit all around with people setting up their Golu and getting prepared for the visits and fun.I am invited to many houses too and boy,I love wearing a saree and visiting my neighbours' home and look forward to the goodie bag they give,the Sundal for the day and the bangles.

Only thing which annoys me is the request for a song.Not a single visit goes by without the hostess saying,"sing a song",or rather "oru paattu paadu ma".Any excuses of sore throat or bad voice or even ignorance does not work here,so I give in most of the times.Now who wants to hear me sing??

I decided to start the day with a sweet prasadam.Sheera or sooji halwa is one of the easiest prasadams you can make in a jiffy.I do have my trusted recipe here,but since today is Wednesday,the day we blog-hop I picked the recipe from Shireen's blog Ruchik Randhap.Shireen is a Manglorean and I identify so much with her style of cooking though the methods are a bit different.

Blog-hop Wednesdays is an event started by Radhika,wherein we are assigned a blog every alternate Wednesday and we are supposed to cook from that blog and blog about it.What a great way to get to know each others blogs and bring variety to the dining table!

In a sauce pan,boil together milk and water,mix in salt and sugar and switch off the flame.Keep it warm.In a thick bottomed pan,melt ghee and roast the cashewnuts till golden brown and raisins till they puff up.Drain and keep aside.Roast the rava in the same pan till it slightly starts turning golden brown.Mix in the milk-water-sugar mixture and the saffron and keep stirring.When everything gets mixed and the rava starts forming lumps,close with a lid and let it cook for a minute or so.Open the pan and add a tsp of ghee(optional)and mix it well.Mix in the roasted cashews and raisins.Serve warm.

yes that song was a must!!! Whether you actually knew to sing or not - but made for some fun times for us hen we had that odd person who could not carry a single note volunteer to sing - bubbles of laughter would shake out bodies (my sis and me) but we had to contain them -- the meanness of youth! this is a good dish to kickstart navaratri with :)